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'Fight of the Year' Feeling
15 Rounds with Steve Kim (Feb 26, 2007) Photo © German Villasenor

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This Saturday night at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, Israel Vazquez (the recognized champion at 122 pounds) takes on the challenge of the world’s best bantamweight, Rafael Marquez (Showtime, 9 pm, ET/PT). The last time I had a similar pre-fight feeling about a bout was in May of 2005.

Remember that one?

That's when Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo would put on a fierce battle that is the early contender for 'Fight of the Millennium'. Like those two, both Vazquez and Marquez have a history of putting on entertaining battles with their offensively inclined styles - and both have hit the canvas more than once.

Both men talked of giving up their lives to win this fight at the official press conference a few weeks back. OK, we don't need THAT much of a sacrifice from these two, but you just get that sense that something special could break out.

Hey, cue up Phil Collins.

"I just think this is going to be one of the greatest pure Mexican fights of all-time," said Marquez's promoter, Gary Shaw, who basically promoted this event by himself. "I just get that feeling; I wish I had no stake in this fight. I wish I could just go sit in a seat and be a fan."

Ken Hershman, Showtime's boxing czar, tempers his expectations.

“You never want to over-emphasize or over-think a fight. Every fight we set up, we hope has the potential to be that," he says. "But this one, just in terms of styles and in terms of their prior history, their professionalism and their incredible fighting skill, just really has all the hallmarks for a great showdown.

"So we're looking forward to it. But I get nervous when I hear 'Fight of the Year' labeled, because they often come up short."

It's appropriate that this bout take place in Southern California, where great Mexican battles of the past like Zarate-Zamora took place. This bout features two Mexican fighters who don't really speak much English and ply their craft in the lower weight divisions. Not too long ago, a bout like this doesn't headline a major televised show. Vazquez-Marquez shows the changing shift in philosophy within the business.

"Certainly, my approach and Showtime's approach to the sport has evolved and in keeping with our mission to put just the best fights on with the best fighters as possible," Hershman would say. "I'm not sure weight class really plays into it as much anymore. At least as far as our thinking goes. We see the Rafael Marquezes and Vic Darchinyans (who will co-headline this bill), as exciting and as marketable as any heavyweight out there today or any of the heavier weights. We also have some great talent at the heavier weights, Sam Peter, James Toney and Chad Dawson, so we're doing well at those heavier weights.

"But we're also not blind to the fact that there's a tremendous talent pool across the board that we need to capitalize on."

While Showtime has Vazquez-Marquez, their competitors will be showcasing a Miguel Cotto mis-mandatory against Oktay Urkal, a fight that Showtime passed on after televising his bout against Carlos Quintana in December.

"We love Miguel, we think he's a tremendous talent and we knew going into the relationship on December 2nd in his last fight that should he be victorious that we had to get through an Urkal fight if we wanted to keep our relationship going," explained Hershman. "But frankly, it came down to dollars and cents, there. The money that was offered across the street was wildly out of whack with what we felt that fight was worth, individually. Hopefully, we see Miguel Cotto back on Showtime shortly. But if that's not the case, there's plenty of talent we can showcase."

To put this into perspective, HBO paid around $2.5 million for the Cotto fight. Showtime paid around a million bucks for their event. Again, one network seems to be about fighters. The other, about fights. This was about dollars and common sense.

And please, if for some reason you decide to watch the HBO show first and have the results spoiled by either Jim Lampley or Larry Merchant, you'll get no sympathy here. You should know better by now. Hey, I don't blame those two, they want to know what happens in good fights, also. After all, they haven't seen many from ringside in the last few years.

"You're making a bad mistake," Shaw would say of anyone that watches the other telecast first. "It really is; I have Vivian Harris, he beat Urkal twice. So what does it prove for Cotto to beat him? This fight here, Vazquez-Marquez, 122-pounds and Darchinyan against Burgos, another come-forward Mexican, I think it's a fight fans’ fight, and a dream fight and something that helps boxing."

Marquez is a consensus top ten pound-for-pound fighter. Vazquez is somewhere in the top 25 and it's been years since either of them have suffered a loss. They meet head-on this weekend.

"I think the best fighters should be on TV fighting the best fighters," says Shaw. "I think that's what this sport should be about. That's what should be broadcast and that's what will save boxing. But if we put mismatches on, or fights that are boring, then fans will lose interest and MMA will keep growing and growing."

But I got a feeling it won’t - not on this night.

OLYMPIC AUDITORIUM

While the other promoters involved in this were either out on cruises or wouldn't help out because this event was on the wrong network, Shaw, from what I was told, did the bulk of the work himself on this event.

He says that on Saturday night, taking a cue from his MMA venture, he will have some things in place to keep the atmosphere from going stale, such as a band or DJ to entertain the patrons in attendance.

In an ode to the past battles that have taken place in the Southern California region, he even inquired about having this bout take place at the historic Grand Olympic Auditorium.

"It's a church now, it's got pulpits, it's got carpeting down and it just couldn't be converted," explained Shaw. "But I would've loved to have put it in the old Olympic Auditorium. I just felt this fight belonged there."

RECOMMENDED READING

Tom Hauser of secondsout.com penned a very fine piece which is critical of HBO's last 'Boxing After Dark' telecast, entitled, 'Notes from the Hammerstein Ballroom'.

In that story, Hauser would email a question regarding a future date on HBO to Ross Greenburg, who is the president of the network’s sports department. In response to some things that Hauser quoted from his predecessor Seth Abraham last month, Greenburg would reply: "Ask Seth."

Ask Seth?

Almost everybody wishes they still could.

But at least he's being professional and mature about this whole thing.

VERSUS

Just my opinion, but the latest telecast from 'Versus', featuring less than five rounds of action between the two featured bouts involving Joe Mesi and Humberto Soto, wrapped around the whole Tommy Morrison saga, was perhaps one of the worst televised shows I have ever seen.

Bob Arum, who I believe is the last of the real, old-school, promoters, can do better than this. It's not like he doesn't get a license fee that is workable (in the six-figures) and he has a deep and talented stable of fighters to draw upon. I had high hopes for this series, as I was told it was about building fresh, new talent - something that Arum is a master at - not recycling guys like Morrison and Mesi, who faced bodies that were deader than Anna Nicole Smith in John 'White' Castle and George Linberger.

This shows once again that a promoter getting exclusivity on any network simply does not work, for the most part.

What really hurts is that if there is another network which is interested in boxing, they might see something like this and be turned away for good. The fight card that was telecast last Thursday was an embarrassment to the game of boxing.

RECOMMENDED VIEWING

For any fans of hip-hop, 'Beyond Beats and Rhymes,' which was directed by Byron Hurt, is a must-see documentary on the state of rap music and it's culture.

I happened to see it last week on PBS's 'Independent Lens', which is quickly becoming must-see television for me.

FINAL FLURRIES

Who's in and out of rehab more, Britney Spears or Scott Harrison?....I'll say this for Darnell Wilson, not only does he have a great nickname ('the Ding-a-Ling Man), he sure can punch....Seriously, why wasn't Morrison's bout televised? For as much as it was played up, couldn't they have shown more than just a bunch of video stills?.....